We learn about Indian culture and lifestyle from the books India: Enchantment of the World and Festivals of the World: India and then head over one town to an Indian super market to get a better feel for it ourselves.
In one of the books we read that many Indian families do not have hot water in the kitchen or ovens and instead cook on small portable ranges. While we thought this was probably no longer the case in most areas of the country, we find it interesting to see how much of the food at this market is pre-made and needs only to be heated on a stove top.
We know that most of India is vegetarian so it’s not a surprise that we find no fresh meat in this store…We do find lots of dry lentils and chickpeas, which are a staple of the cuisine.
We see lots of brands that are new to us…
And one we know well in America…
In the produce section we find white coconuts…
And sugar cane. AZ thinks this is very cool!
Some colorful fig and coconut desserts in a refrigerator …
And a variety of homegoods…lots of incense (some charcoal and some bamboo) and several perfumes…
The books we have read on India talk quite a bit about religion and we know that several religions began there–Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. In this market we find many different religious statues but most of them are representations of Buddha.
We also find many henna products, from hair dyes to henna tatoo cones.
We fill our basket with some new things to try for lunch and head home…
We heat up Palak Paneer (cubed cottage cheese in spinach sauce), Chole (chickpeas in a spicy sauce), and Malai Kofta (cheese dumplings in a tomato and safron sauce). And try them with naan bread and some chickpea crackers and salted lentils.
We also sample some Indian drinks. One is a mango juice but the other two are less familiar–we think they will be thicker but they are the consistency of skim milk with the taste of yogurt. The kids are excited to try the rose flavor but decide they actually like it the least of the three…
AZ tries the Malai Kofta and says it’s too spicy for her. CZ likes everything but says the naan and the cottage cheese in the spinach sauce are her favorite. She finds a couple of the dishes slightly spicy but the yogurt drink helps to get rid of the heat from the spice…HZ says he has tried everything but his plate is looking very untouched!
Somehow he is quick to pick up his spoon when it’s dessert time…we picked two flavors of ice cream–rose and cashew with raisins. The cashew is by far the favorite. The rose ice cream they don’t love the flavor of, but they do like the bright pink color! Very festive…
And finally we open the rose water. After their disappointment with the rose drink and the rose ice cream they are not as excited about the rose water as they were when we bought it, but are happy to find out it makes a very nice, light perfume 🙂
Globe Scouts 
Impressed that the little ones are excited to try something new. It looks yummy!